New Delhi: Missing Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu’s helicopter crash site has been located in the area of Lugutang, according to Union Home Ministry. The search party is now trying to locate the bodies.

“The search teams located the crash site. The search teams have seen three bodies there, but the bodies not been identified yet,” said Shambhu Singh, Joint Secretary (Northeast).

“The spot where the debris has been located is near Sela pass,” said Kiren Rijiju, Advisor to Arunachal Chief Minister.

“The terrain is very difficult. It will take at least one day to reach there. The area is snow bound and the altitude is very high. We are on the way to the spot. We may reach there by midnight,” Rijiju added.

Home Minister P Chidambaram said that three bodies have been cited.

“The citing is from a height. We have not been able to go down to the spot,” said Chidambaram.

It has been five days since Khandu’s helicopter went missing. There were two other passengers accompanying the Chief Minister and two crew members of the Pawan Hans Eurocopter B3 craft.

The other passengers were Lamu, a woman relative of the Chief Minister, his security officer Choddak, Captain Babbar and Captain Manik.

A desperate search has been on not just by the Indian Army and paramilitary units but also by Bhutanese teams. Bad weather conditions had been hampering search operations that have been on since April 30. The state government had declared a cash award of Rs 10 lakh for any information.

On Wednesday, two MI-17, two Cheetah helicopters and two Chetak from Tawang and Tezpur took off again in an attempt to search the area.

Out of seven locations identified by ISRO and IAF’s Sukhoi-30s, four had been searched and search at three other locations were taken up on Wednesday.

The helicopter carrying Khandu and his aides went missing near Sela Pass near Tawang on Saturday and on Tuesday, rescuers entered Bhutan to look for him.